Fifa’s general secretary, Jérôme Valcke, had requested a pay-off from the organisation worth millions of pounds before he was suspended on Thursday in the wake of yet more corruption allegations at football’s world governing body.

The Frenchman announced in July that he would leave Fifa at the emergency congress next February, when the president, Sepp Blatter, will also stand down.

According to the Press Association, Valcke’s contract has three years to run and he had been negotiating a pay-off to leave the organisation, but had not been successful. Valcke’s predecessor, Urs Linsi, was given a pay-off worth £3.6m. However, that was in different times.

The Fifa bigwigs facing charges

The Fifa bigwigs facing charges

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Jeffrey Webb, 50, Cayman Iskands

A Fifa vice president. His arrest came as a big surprise, as he had been tipped as the man to clean up Fifa once Blatter departs. Webb is also president of Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (Concacaf) and the Cayman Islands Football Association

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Costas Takkas, 58, UK

A British citizen, Mr Takkas is currently an attache to the Concacaf president. He was previously general secretary of the Cayman Islands Football Association, of which Mr Webb is president

The former Fifa vice president and head of Concacaf was a dominant force in football for 30 years, but was suspended from his roles in 2011 amid accusations of corruption dating back to the 1980s and an investigation by Fifa's ethics committee. He later resigned, ending the proceedings against him.
Daryan Warner, the son of Jack Warner is also believed to have co-operated with the FBI. He pleaded guiltyin October 2013 to wire fraud conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy and the structuring of financial transactions, forfeiting $1.1m.
Daryll Warner, another of Jack Warner's sons, he pleaded guilty to various offences in July 2013. A former Fifa development officer, he lost the job in 2012 after his father's resignation amid corruption allegations. He and his brother both face up to 10 years in prison

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Charles Blazer, 70, USA

The former Concacaf general secretary reportedly turned "supergrass" to help the FBI inestigation, using a bugging device hidden inside a key fob to record meetigs with his Fifa colleagues at the London 2012 Olympics. In November 2013 he pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy, and income tax evasion. Seriously ill with colon cancer

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Rafael Esquivel, 68, Venezuela

Executive committee member of the South American Football Confederetion (Conmebol). It is alleged that officials at Conmebol, which organises the Copa America, received bribes from marketing executives

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Eugenio Figueredo, 83, USA/Uruguay

The Fifa vice president and executive committee member is a big name in world football, having previously been at the head of Conmebol and the Uruguayan Football Association. A former right-back

Reuters

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Nicolas Leoz, 86, Paraguay

A former Fifa executive committee member and Conmebol president. When he retired in 2013 for health reasons, he said: "I've not stolen so much as a cent"

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Eduardo Li, 56, Costa Rica

President of the Costa Rican Football Federation. He was elected to Fifa's executive commitee in March

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José Maria Marin, 83, Brazil

The former president of the Brazilian Football Confederation is also a member of Fifa's committee for Olympic tournaments

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Julio Rocha, 64, Nicaragua

Fifa development officer. Previously president of his country's football federation

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José Hawilla, 71, Brazil

The owner and founder of the Traffic Group, a sports marketing conglomerate, pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy, and money laundering conspiracy in 2014. Two of his companies - Traffic Sports International Inc and Traffic Sports USA Inc - have also pleaded guilty

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Aaron Davidson, 44, USA

President of Traffic Sports USA, is a large promoter of football events in America

Alejandro Burzaco, a media executive who controls Torneos y Competencias, a sports marketing business.
Hugo Jinkis, is the president of Full Play Group, a sports marketing business in Argentina. His son Mariano, is vice president

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José Margulies (AKA José Lazaro), 75, Brazil

Although he is in broadcasting, it is alleged he served as an intermediary to facilitate illicit payments between sports marketing executives and Fifa officials

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Valcke has been in the No 2 job since 2007, despite being forced to leave the organisation only a year earlier after Mastercard walked out on a sponsorship deal, claiming it and Visa had been lied to in order to secure the highest possible price for a deal.

Until this week, none of the many scandals engulfing the organisation had specifically implicated Fifa’s very highest-ranking officials.

But the allegations made by ticketing agent Benny Alon – that he had made an agreement with Valcke to sell Brazil 2014 World Cup tickets for prices way over their listed value, and that Valcke would receive a cut of the profits – have caused Valcke to be suspended by Fifa pending an investigation by its ethics committee.

Valcke, for his part, has denied the “outrageous and fabricated” allegations. Fifa also cancelled the contract in 2013, ostensibly when it became clear that the tickets would be sold at several times their face value, and the deal never took place.

Sources close to Fifa have told Press Association Sport that Valcke has been keen for some time to make an early exit from the governing body.

Valcke had been on his way to Moscow for a Russia 2018 event to mark 1,000 days to go to the next World Cup, but when the allegations broke his private jet was turned around in mid-air and he returned to Zurich.

Blatter, who was also due to fly to Moscow, has cancelled his travel plans. Blatter sent an email to Fifa staff in which he claimed: “Fifa is confident of its ability to recover from the present difficult situation and restore its reputation for the good of the game.”

You would have to go back a very long time to find a point at which Fifa had any kind of reputation worth restoring.

Valcke’s lawyers said in a statement: “Mr Valcke never received or agreed to accept any money or anything else of value from Mr Alon. As has been reported, Fifa entered into an agreement with Mr Alon’s company, JB Sports Marketing. That agreement and Fifa’s subsequent business dealings with Alon were vetted and approved by Fifa and its legal counsel.”

On Thursday, Gorka Villar – one of the specially appointed eight-person Fifa Reform Group – was accused of attempted extortion by eight South American football clubs. He is the son of Angel Villar Llona, the anti-reform Spanish Fifa executive committee member.

Swiss authorities have also agreed to the extradition to the US of Eugenio Figueredo, one of the seven Fifa executives to be dragged from their beds at the Baur au Lac hotel in Zurich in May.

Until this week, only the Cayman Islands banker and Concacaf president, Jeffrey Webb, had been successfully extradited.